Mediaboss Marketing

Invoking your Fifth Amendment rights is a sign of guilt, according to one Florida police officer.

TechDirt.com reports that one of its readers recently sent the website a video (below) of two people filming an area where prisoners are taken in and out of the Duval County courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida.

This area is known as a "sally port," and is in full view of a public sidewalk where the cameramen were filming from.

However, two officers from the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office recently tried to stop the men from filming.

In the video, one of the officers tells the cameramen this is a "secure area" and asks why they are filming.

One cameraman says, "I am filming in a public space.

The officer then wants to know the cameraman's name and why he refuses to tell him (the officer) why he is filming.

According to TheFreeThoughtProject.com, when the cameraman says he wants to "remain silent," the police officer appears to laugh and says, "You must be doing something wrong if you invoke your rights."

The officer then doubles down on his bizarre claim and refuses to show the cameraman the statute that bans people from filming prisoners entering and leaving the sally port.

Eventually, the officers leave the scene and allow the men to film.

Read the original here:
Cop Says 'You Must Be Doing Something Wrong if You Invoke Your Rights' (Video)

September 9, 2014 4:45 PM Share with others:

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A federal appeals court today overturned the conviction of a Texas man on drug charges, saying the government violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during his trial here.

Gathon Shannon, 48, of Houston, described by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as a courier in a Texas-to-Beaver County cocaine ring, was convicted by a federal jury and sentenced in 2013 to 20 years.

But a three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that the prosecution violated his rights in cross-examining him about his silence following his arrest in 2011.

The circuit judges vacated the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch and ordered that Mr. Shannon receive a new trial.

Mr. Shannon was among a group of accused conspirators targeted by the U.S. attorney's Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force, which said the ring supplied much of Beaver County's cocaine demand from 2009 to 2011.

Continued here:
Texas man's conviction overturned because of Fifth Amendment violation

The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld a Wyandotte County district court's dismissal of indictments against an attorney for the Board of Public Utilities of Kansas City, Kan.

The high court overturned a Court of Appeals reversal, agreeing with the district court that Robert Turner's constitutional right against self-incrimination had been violated during the grand jury proceedings.

A citizen-called grand jury in 2008 indicted Turner on two counts of theft and 55 counts of presenting a false claim, which was based on nonitemized vouchers totaling about $400,000 he submitted for work he did for BPU.

The grand jury had been called to look into allegations of misappropriation of public funds by directors of BPU, an arm of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County.

It was during testimony before the grand jury that William Delaney a special agent of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation who was assigned to serve as the investigator for the grand jury made repeated suggestions that Turner was somehow involved in the 1989 unsolved murder of Chuck Thompson, a Kansas City, Kan., politician and lawyer.

Delaney told jurors he had been investigating the case for years, and that he would be asking questions of people he thought were involved during the BPU probe.

The grand jury subpoenaed Turner, who gave notice in advance that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Delaney questioned him anyway, asking questions related not just to the BPU probe but also the Thompson murder. Turner, court records show, addressed about 100 or more questions by invoking his right against self-incrimination.

The district court, on appeal, ruled that Delaney's continual leading questioning and remarks to jurors suggesting that Turner's silence meant he had something to hide were prejudicial to Turner, and dismissed the indictments.

The Court of Appeals overturned the decision, saying a person can be compelled to appear before a grand jury and be asked questions to which he can invoke constitutional protections on a question-by-question basis. The appeals court said Turner had not demonstrated that he was prejudiced by Delaney's methods.

The Supreme Court disagreed.

Go here to read the rest:
Kansas Supreme Court: Grand jury violated man's Fifth Amendment rights

Cristin Milioti in The Good Wife - Julianna Margulies
The Fifth Amendment of United States Constitution protects individuals from being forced to incriminate (be accused of a crime) themselves. Cristin #39;s charact...

By: Mario Rustan

View post:
Cristin Milioti in The Good Wife - Julianna Margulies - Video

In the upcoming general election, voters will have many important decisions to make, one of which might make it easier to prosecute sex offenders.

The action, Missouri Evidence in Sexual Crimes Against Minors or Amendment 2, would allow prosecutors who are trying a case against an alleged child sex offender to use relevant past criminal activity as evidence against the defendants.

This means that if an alleged sex offender had been accused, but not found guilty, of a past crime, a prosecutor could still introduce the record of that accusation to the court as evidence against the defendant under Amendment 2.

The amendment has been seen as controversial, as it might make it easier to reach a guilty verdict in those types of cases.

Due to some Supreme Court decisions, prosecuting attorneys were unable to try many cases of child sexual abuse in our state, Rep. John McCaherty, R-Mo., said. As a member of the Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee, I see the amendment as a positive step to give prosecutors the tools they need to protect our children, and to see those that prey on them prosecuted. There has been no opposition to this legislation, and I was proud to sponsor it.

McCaherty is the primary sponsor of the amendment, which recently received approval from the Missouri House of Representatives to be placed on the ballot in November.

McCaherty said he felt the bill would address an important gap in Missouris justice system, giving prosecutors a powerful tool to imprison sex offenders.

He said there should be no violation of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which forbids double jeopardy, secures the right to a grand jury and protects against self-incrimination, or the Sixth Amendment, which includes the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, the rights to a lawyer and an impartial jury and the right to know who your accusers are.

Of course there have to be safeguards in place as well, so a defendant can receive a fair trial, McCaherty said. Not all evidence is relevant to every trial. This is the responsibility of the judge to determine the relevance in each case.

The amendment has gained local attention and a Protect Missouri Children Committee formed to support the measure. The group believes that the amendment will protect children and aid in putting dangerous criminals behind bars.

See the original post:
New bill a powerful tool to imprison sex offenders